This past Sunday was the premiere of my new piece for trumpet and piano - Through the Lowland Valley. It was performed by my former trumpet professor Dr. Richard Tirk at Luther College. Man, did he nail it!

As a young composer it's great to be given the opportunity to work with such amazing performers. I went to the dress rehearsal not knowing what to expect. Admittedly, I wrote the trumpet part without even playing through it myself! Not only that, but this was also my first work that had a substantial piano part. I was anxious to get feedback from both Dr. Tirk and his amazing accompanist, Dr. Jessica Paul.

The dress rehearsal and the performance blew my mind. It's exhilarating to hear one's own music come to life. Especially when all you've heard of it is some horrendous MIDI recording...

A big, big thanks to Dr. Tirk for commissioning the work. Also, another huge thanks to him and Dr. Paul for being the amazing artists that they are and giving me some wonderful feedback. It was an honor to get to work with them on this piece.